Snowball Fight!

After a few days with my family, we headed over to Jim's family home. Once there, the forecast plummeted to insanely cold temperatures and lots of snow. Ellie (who got here a couple days after Christmas) was ridiculously excited about it and could not wait to play in the fluff. As a California girl, she doesn't own a lot of winter wear which makes bundling her up a creative endeavor. The first attempt at going outside she wore knit capri pants and a long sleeve shirt. After about five minutes she realized that we (all the adults who were present and counseled her otherwise) might actually know what we were talking about. Attempt #2 was more successful and the girls were bundled enough to play for a good hour before the chill took over.

The snow was really fluffy and didn't stick together terribly well, but somehow Papa Jim and Jim were able to smash it together enough to torment the kids a little. The big snowman Ellie wanted to build was a bit of a bigger challenge. Papa Jim was trying to roll a large enough snowball to start one but it just didn't want to grow larger.

The menfolk stayed safely on the edge and launched the frozen fluff at the kids safe from retribution.

Ellie had her game face on! You would never know she's a Cali girl. She thought the snow was pretty much the best thing ever and had a total blast.

Aeryn also got really into things. She did stay a little closer to the back, but it didn't stop her from getting doused with snow!

Papa Jim threw a bullseye!

Ellie got her snowman. This one ended up pretty little, but as the sun shone a little longer she was able to build a larger one too. A little creativity in decoration and the kids had cute snow people and a little fort in the yard.

Even when we get snow in Oregon, it's nothing like this - in quantity or quality. It was light, fluffy, sparkly, and quite fun. Tate was asleep during the adventure, but I doubt he'd have loved being pelted anyway. They had such a good time and I'm really grateful we had the chance to get out and play for a bit.